Sounding the Center is an in-depth look at the power behind classical
music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist
Thailand. Focusing on the ritual honoring teachers of music and dance,
Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings,
teachers, knowledge, and performance that underlies the classical court
arts.
Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, Wong lays out the ritual in detail:
the way it is enacted, the foods and objects involved, and the people
who perform it, emphasizing the way the performers themselves discuss
and construct aspects of the ceremony.